04.16.10
2 p.m. CDT Friday, April 16, 2010
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
STATUS REPORT: STS-131-24
STS-131 MCC STATUS REPORT #24
HOUSTON – Space shuttle Discovery astronauts secured the Multi-Purpose
Logistics Module Leonardo in the cargo bay this morning, wrapping up
its delayed move from the International Space Station.
Leonardo had spent the crew’s night at the end of the station’s
Canadarm2 just above Discovery’s payload bay after balky bolts
delayed its departure from the orbiting laboratory’s Harmony module.
Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki used the arm
to cover the final feet of the first stage of Leonardo’s trip home.
Mission Specialist Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger activated latches to
secure Leonardo in the cargo bay at 2:15 a.m. CDT.
Next Wilson, Metcalf-Lindenburger and Discovery Pilot James P. Dutton
Jr. teamed up to begin the late inspection of the shuttle’s thermal
protection system. Working in shifts with some help from Commander
Alan G. Poindexter and Yamazaki, they used Discovery’s robotic arm
and the orbiter boom sensor system to look at reinforced
carbon-carbon of the wing leading edges and the nose cone, as well as
the heat-resistant tiles.
The inspection, scheduled for about seven hours, was finished almost
three hours ahead of schedule. It was done while the shuttle was
still docked so the images could be sent down by the station’s
high-data-rate system. Discovery’s high-data-rate Ku band antenna is
not working.
Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station a little before 8
a.m. on Saturday. The first landing opportunity at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida is at 7:48 a.m. on Monday.
The next status report will be issued after crew wakeup at 11:21 p.m.,
or earlier if events warrant.
-end-